There’s a certain level of adulthood you reach where you realize that filthy humor really is hilarious, and you’re not fooling anyone by pretending it isn’t. Unfortunately, this realization tends to come at a time in your life when you’ve also realized that things like misogyny and racism are both incredibly shitty and incredibly prevalent. You want sex jokes, but you don’t want rape jokes, and you want to acknowledge that butt stuff can be hilariously awkward, but you also get furious when people are homophobic. Where can you, an adult with a refined palate for filthy humor, turn to satisfy your deep, aching need for inclusive, witty garbage? Esteemed readers, consider Oglaf.
Recently I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled more than ever for articles talking about gaming culture and its effects on its members, in addition to its effects on the people that supply us with our drug of choice (i.e.: game devs). This may come as a shock to some people, but apparently when you keep your eyes open, you actually find things. Today’s Web Crush hits a spot very close to my heart and combines two of my favorite things: Xbox Live and laughing at stupid people. What? I never said I was nice.
Not in the Kitchen Anymore is a site that documents fellow girl gamer Jenny Haniver’s day-to-day experiences as she plays games over Xbox Live. This doesn’t sound all that interesting from my description, but it’s the simplest way to explain the layout of her posts. On a deeper level, she’s exploring the misogyny that’s so rampant within the community. Or, well, I wouldn’t say exploring—it’s “exploring” if the temples Indiana Jones “explored” came up and knocked on his door. What’s happening here is more like watching Cops.
Sadly, neither Benedict Cumberbatch nor Martin Freeman could go to Comic Con. Happily, however, they sent video messages. And they’re below for your viewing pleasure.
General observation: the sunglasses really make the Bilbo costume. That’s where the compliments to Martin Freeman end however. Because while we know Freeman as an actor, we (or at least I) don’t know him as a person. And here’s the thing with humor: if you do not have an fairly intimate relationship with the person you are joking with, any joke has to be over-the-top and obvious. While I believe Freeman was in fact joking about attacking people, his delivery made me think a couple times about whether he was being serious. And that makes it an unsuccessful joke.
On to our second segment. Benedict Cumberbatch is frickin’ adorable. And funny. To be honest, I really had no idea what was going on in the first half of his message; I was distracted by his rather good looks. But the concept of him trying to spoil us and being thwarted was an interesting idea and rather well executed. And it helps that Benedict Cumberbatch is gorgeous.
I’m sorry, I really didn’t intend to make this into a fan girl post. But that sort of happened in the last paragraph. Sorry. But Sherlock is coming back! And it’s this fall, which is honestly sooner than I thought. Either that, or Sherlock Series 2 ended longer ago than I remember. Either way, we have more things to be excited about, including Benedict Cumberbatch.
I am a huge fan of comedy. I think that, for the most part, everything should be allowed to be made fun of or nothing can be made fun of.
However, there are some things I don’t find funny. I don’t find dead children funny. I don’t find rape funny. And I don’t find jokes about mental and physical disabilities funny.
Sometimes you get drawn into a fandom you never expected, a fandom you never knew existed, and for me this stared before I ever truly knew what being a fan of something was. As a kid, my parents used to placate me and my brother by sitting us in front of the television, as many parents do, and while we enjoyed the classics like Rugrats and Cow and Chicken, I veered from the cartoony path slightly. My televised love didn’t take the shape of an animated figure; he wore glasses, went to ‘Bed, Bath, and Beyond’, and talked about science. Yes, it’s true: Alton Brown was my first crush and my first fandom was Food Network.
I know it’s difficult to believe, but Food Network does indeed have its own fandom, its own fanfiction, and their own annoying fanpeople of a sort—they’re definitely not as vocal as some fans I’ve seen, but sometimes it’s hard to get excited over Cupcake Wars (like, all the time). We have our own ‘stans’ (people that viciously support a certain person), and let me tell you, the hate-following behind annoying chef extraordinaire, Bobby Flay, warms my cold, shriveled heart. No site documents these actions better than Food Network Humor.
Er, documented.
Unfortunately, FNH has gone on an indefinite hiatus after creator Jillian Madison became burned out on all the craptastic new shows Food Network began shoveling out. I can’t blame her. However, she kindly has kept all the posts up so old readers and newbies alike can enjoy her sardonic humor when discussing things like how Guy Fieri mispronounces his last name or Sandra Lee’s horrendous Kwanzaa cake.
As this is essentially a gossip site, there are a plethora of articles reveling in the juicy gossip happening behind the scenes, not to mention several articles that reveal some of your favorite chefs’ opinions on women and the LGBT* community (For instance, Guy Fieri? Not a fan of the latter and quite possibly the former too). I revel in all this information: it’s so satisfying to see the little cracks of imperfection in people that are built up to be such pillars of their community. However, this site has also given me a great love for Paula Deen, who loves the site and is quite open about how she has become kind of a joke to the greater internet public. It has also kept my love for Mr. Brown at an all-time high, as he is pretty much the most amazing person on the Food Network and doesn’t take shit from any of his co-workers (and, surprise! Actually knows about food).
My favorite, and MadameAce’s favorite, portion of the site though, are the ridiculous recipes people find on Food Network’s main site, and damned if some of them lead me to wonder if we’re all going to be forced to live off of Hamburger Helper and other boxed foods in the future. Let me show you an oldie, but goodie as an example:
Excuse me while I let out a few tears; whether they be of laughter or horror, I may never know.
I know I’m not the only one waiting for the triumphant return of this blog. Indeed, we are legion, we are many—well, there are a lot of us anyways. Until then, I suppose I’ll have to make due with watching the weekly cake battles and yelling at people on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives that no, you really don’t need that much pepper in your damn sandwich. My work is never done.
I am so excited for this movie it is ridiculous. A lot of big name movies came out recently, but I really think Warm Bodies is going to be one of the most severely underrated movies this winter.
Warm Bodies seems to be an awesome spoof of the paranormal romance craze. Pairing the romance between the hot blonde and the gross undead zombie is hilarious in and of itself, but for me the best thing about this movie, at least from what I can tell about the trailer, is the inner monologue of the zombie.
The fact that the zombie has an almost completely coherent inner monologue, but still acts like a normal everyday zombie is perfect, and really something that has been missing from various zombie spoofs in general.
I’m definitely going to check out Warm Bodies. You should too.
It’s Web Crush Wednesdays again and its time to crush on all your favorite BAMF Girls.
I love Comediva and I have talked about them before when I crushed on Geek Therapy, but Comediva has done it again by giving us the BAMF Girl Club. Imagine all of your favorite badass female characters living together as roommates! BAMF Girl Club brings together Hermione, Katniss, Lisbeth, Buffy, Michonne, and …Bella… all in one house. Watch them try and get along!
If parodies like this are the only good thing we’ll get out of reality TV I think it’s worth it.
Watch the video, then like and subscribe to my latest Web Crush!
I’m new to the world of Avengers fandom, and I have only a very interested amateur’s knowledge of the comicverse; but even with all of this, I have this very instinctual understanding that “The Avengers all live together in a house provided by Tony Stark” is an Avengers fanfic plot trope as old and honored as sex pollen or accidental bonding are in Kirk/Spock fiction. And within those tropes, there are always going to be not-so-good ones, and there are always going to be super-amazing ones.
Ready, Fire, Aim is one of the latter. Full disclosure, it’s Steve/Tony (with background Pepper/Natasha), and there’s not much of a connecting thread to the story except for the gradual romantic growth between the two. But the episodic flow of the story is really organic and comfortable; in once scene Clint’s trying to teach Thor how to use the Wii, and in the next the team is helping (or being helped by) the X-Men and the Fantastic Four to subdue evil parade floats. (Oh yeah, there are a million neat little tie-ins with the Marvel ‘verse outside of the movie, which I appreciated even if I am not a comic buff.) The funny parts are funny, the sexy parts are hot like burning, and although I’m not super qualified to talk about characterization, the characters seem to be and act and talk exactly how they ought to in my head. Thor especially is amazing.
This story has two amazing sequels as well (well, one is an actual sequel and one is the story of Ready, Fire, Aim from Steve’s POV, written for a charity fic auction), but they’re easily around 50k words put together, so if you’re recently graduated like me and have a hell of a lot of time on your hands, this is the perfect fic to spend an hour or two (or however long it takes other people to read 50,000 words) with. Enjoy!
This fic seemed particularly relevant today as I am, as you read, road-tripping all the way to Florida for Spring Break. (I wrote this yesterday. HELLO FROM THE PAST!)
But anyway. I recently finished watching the anime Tiger & Bunny, which is about the daily lives and adventures of superheroes in a futuristic city called Sternbild. The heroes all compete in a reality TV show (called, aptly, Hero TV) where they receive points for rescues, arrests, and not-destroying-property.
The odd couple of Kotetsu, the goofy older guy who doesn’t care about his scores, and Barnaby, the hot young blond with a revenge complex and a desperate desire to succeed, was born to be slashed, let me just say.
I was surprised they didn’t get married at the end of the series, the subtext was so obvious.
So, needless to say, this is a Kotetsu/Barnaby fic. It’s set post-series, but doesn’t really have any significant spoilers, and the whole story is that Kotetsu, Barnaby, and Kotetsu’s daughter Kaede are going on a road trip to see a big hole in the groun-sorry, a canyon.
Possibly my favorite thing about it besides its sugary cuteness is that it’s written from Kaede’s point of view.
Kaede is a snarky, old-for-her-years ten-year-old with a crush the size of, well, a canyon on her Hero TV favorite, Barnaby. So when she gets the chance to spend days in the car with him, she’s thrilled… until she realizes that Barnaby in person is a lot more awkward and dorky than his TV personality, and, more importantly, that he is quite obviously in love with her father.
The story itself is really just hilarious, with nods to typical road-trip problems such as the what-music-do-we-listen-to, the you-drive-too-fast-you-drive-too-slow, and the must-we-really-stop-at-every-worlds’-largest-ball-of-string-for-pictures problems. It does have its serious moments too, however – it deals with how Kaede rationalizes her mom’s death and the possibility of her dad starting a new relationship with someone else. And yes, the ending is sappy and adorable, but what else would you expect from a road trip story?
If you loved Tiger & Bunny like I did, I definitely recommend you read this lovely story. Check it out here at AO3.
Women often get screwed when it comes to being a Christ figure. Sure, if I was watching a movie about the actual historical person of Christ I would be a bit confused if Jesus was cast as a woman, but a Christ figure is just that, a figure. I don’t think anyone but perhaps crazed religious extremists would protest Aslan being a lioness instead of a lion, but alas, Christ was a man so I don’t blame anyone for constantly casting Christ figures as male. There is no harm in that and completely understandable. It does, however, leave another divine role open to women, one that doesn’t have a gender.
It’s been said that portrayals of God are often a white male. While this may be true in religious iconography, I don’t know if it’s fair to say the same about pop culture. In recent years, God has on occasion been black and even a woman once or twice; so pop culture has been branching out. Before that, while God was occasionally a white male, for the most part God was a disembodied voice or hand (think Monty Python or The Ten Commandments). Many times, God wouldn’t appear at all but would be an unseen, unknowable force, seemingly moving the events of the story (think Good Omens).
Women have been portrayed as God a few times, but for the most part we get what I call “a taste of the divine.” Women get an opportunity to touch or commune with the divine, but they don’t stay that way and often return to their normal human states after.
Rose Tyler of Dr. Who goes through one such touch with the divine in the season finale of Dr. Who in 2005 when she absorbs the heart of the Tardis.
To give you a bit of background I have only just finished watching the episodes of Dr. Who with the 9th Doctor. So if there is later information that I do not mention it’s because I’m not aware of it.
Anyway, Rose absorbs the heart of the Tardis and promptly becomes a conduit for God. Rose looks into the time vortex, which the Doctor explains that no one is supposed to see. He further tells her that if she doesn’t stop she’ll burn. This is very reflected of instances in the Old Testament where someone encounters God and is changed by or even dies by it. In this way, the Tardis appears much like the Arc of the Covenant, which the ancient Jews believed was the seat of the God. God is physically present in the Arc and anyone who looks upon or touches it that is not supposed to dies. The Doctor warns Rose that she is not meant to see the time vortex and is worried that Rose will burn up, but Rose manages to hold on long enough to destroy false gods (the Dalek emperor) and resurrect the dead.
Rose Tyler: I want you safe, my Doctor. Protected from the false God.
Emperor Dalek: You cannot hurt me. I am immortal.
Rose Tyler: You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space, every single atom of your existence, and I divide them. Everything must come to dust. All things, everything dies.
This quote 1) shows Rose’s ability to see all things the way many imagine God. She sees the big picture. 2) Rose destroys a false God, which is a theme often depicted in theBible. In the final line, Rose actually discusses the creation of all things reflecting Genesis 3:19. “…for you are dust and to dust you will return.”
Finally, Rose restores life to those who have died and, despite the Doctor’s begging, seems unwilling to let the power go. Though it doesn’t seem to be because she is power hungry, but rather she doesn’t want to let go of this connection. Many Catholic and Orthodox saints who have claimed to experience the power of God describe it as touching ecstasy. Rose seems only able to let go after the Doctor describes his own experience feeling what Rose does. (And for those of you wondering, yes, the Doctor is something of a God figure too. I’ll get to him later.)
In the end, Rose let’s go of the power and remembers nothing, again implying that the power and awe of this divinity is too great for human Rose to comprehend. Well, not without dying anyway.
Buffy is another character that touches the divine and is even something of a Christ figure. Yes, Buffy dies to save the whole world and then rises from the dead, but I hope that last week’s talk on Christ figures has made you realize there is more to Christ figures then simple resurrection. After all, Spike died and rose again, but we’d hardly call him a Christ figure. Let’s call Buffy a pseudo-Christ figure, though Buffy does have her own touches with the divine. In the finale of season four, Buffy faces off against the Frankenstein-like monster Adam. Adam may be my absolute least favorite Buffy villain, but how Buffy defeats him is probably the coolest. Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles realize that the only way to stop him is to use a Sumerian enjoining spell to combine their power.
It’s worth mentioning here that Buffy, unlike most other fantasy/horror shows, draws on the Judeo-Christian tradition notably less. But let’s break this little spell down. It’s Sumerian, one of the first and greatest human civilizations. One could argue humanity started there—creation started there. Who creates? That’s right, God. Buffy does combine with Willow, Xander, and Giles, and Joss Whedon has even mentioned that this was to show the power and closeness of their relationship. One tradition in ancient Jewish and Christian culture was that God’s body was comprised of all people. In this way, God was all races, all genders. In other words, God was everything and humans were all just a tiny piece of God. Buffy and her Scooby Gang enjoining, in their combined strength, could be viewed as a larger piece of God.
In fact, the same things happen to Buffy as they did Rose. Buffy glows, especially her eyes, she turns death to life by turning Adam’s bullets into doves (Holy Spirit symbolism… maybe?), and seems to see the same bigger picture that Rose did.
Adam: How can you…?
UberBuffy: You can never hope to grasp the source of our power. But yours is right here.
She then proceeds to destroy the false god Adam, who was going to destroy humans by creating a new race of composite monsters, by removing his power source.
So these are some women who have communed with God and been a part of God, but hey, sometimes those women don’t need to commune with God, because they are God.
In the movie The Fifth Element, Leeloo is created by the Mondoshawns, a race of aliens, to defeat evil when combined with four elemental stones, thus obviously, making Leeloo the fifth one. Leeloo is created perfect and often called the Supreme Being. As a feminist, I always got a kick out of this movie, because of the constant assertion from people that don’t know Leeloo assuming the Supreme Being was a man. There is definitely a very obvious commentary here about female empowerment and God as feminine by the creators.
From a theological perspective, however, as much as I love this movie it can be damn well confusing. The religion in this movie is all over the place. Leeloo is created by these other aliens, yet she is the Supreme Being. Are those aliens gods? To create a Supreme Being you would assume they’d have to be. Or are they creating a body for God to inhabit in the same way that the Virgin Mary said yes and allowed God to be born through her. Furthermore, the idea that Leeloo could not defeat evil (evil here being this giant intelligent dark planet which only has the intent to destroy) without the stones (the four elements) limits her Godlike powers. If she is the Supreme Being couldn’t she just defeat the evil anyway? She doesn’t seem that powerful either. She has one fight scene in the whole movie, is later saved by Bruce Willis’s character, and then after realizing he loves her, saves the world, because love is worth protecting even if humanity tends to screw up. She defeats evil with the light of creation, but seems to have little to no control over it and it takes everything out of her.
The priest who is with Leeloo seems like he is part of another sect of Christianity. He makes the sign of the cross and still refers to a God or Lord throughout the movie, but calls Leeloo the Supreme Being and guides her through our world. Leeloo never has a big picture moment. In fact, she seems to know nothing about the world and spends a large chunking of the movie going through human history on the computer.
At this point, I have to conclude, that despite Leeloo and others constant assertions that Leeloo is the Supreme Being, she’s not, not really. I’m guessing more a super-powered human used, once again, as a conduit for the divine with the help of the stones. She may be perfect, but really she’s a perfect vessel, not God. This does not make me think this movie is any less awesome or any less a feminist narrative. It has its problems, but doesn’t everything. Leeloo may not be God, but she is still worth watching.
There is one female character that I know with absolute certainty is God.
God in Dogma is a woman. That’s just fact. It’s clear this God can take other vessels, but God’s actual gender in this movie is spelled out as being female. While that’s not theologically accurate because God has no gender and every gender at the same time, it is a refreshing change of pace. This God is completely and utterly powerful, awe-inspiring, but yet funny and relatable. She has a sense of humor about Her creations and Her plans, while still being powerful enough to see the bigger and to have greater plans in the first place.
It endlessly annoys me that a movie most Christian groups heavily criticized actually has an awesome portrayal of the feminine God and asks good theological questions. Dogma was a great movie about God and faith. You should keep an open mind and watch it.
I suppose now you all want me to talk about the male portrayals of God. Well, I need a break from God right now. What? Talking about God is hard. God is unknowable, after all. So what can we talk about next week if not God? It has to be something big, something that connects all people no matter what religion or philosophy. Hmm… oh, I know! The one thing all people fear to some extent.
Next time on Oh, My Pop Culture Jesus: O Death!
Tune in next week and—die! Uh… I mean get some religion…
Lady Geek Girl and Friends 